STARKS - HALO 3 PREVIEW! Starks & Jooney were lucky enough to secure an invitation to visit Microsoft Headquarters to get a sneak peak at the Final Version of Halo 3.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

I was stunned, amazed, fulfilled, and largely euphoric at being able to realise a dream I’ve had for many years now.

It really seemed like a dream to me. I just... couldn’t believe that I was playing with something I’d been fantasising over for so long. You know that giddy feeling you get when something you never thought would happen is actually going on right here and now?

I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world.

Anyways, enough about the night I spent with Jennifer Hawkins.

Saturday the 21st saw me get the rare opportunity to play Halo 3 before most of the world. Well, most of the world who didn’t trick an employee at K-Mart that the release date sticker on the Halo 3 game was just a joke by Bungie. Or the entire Electronics Boutique staff of Australia who’ve taken home their own copy and have locked themselves in a dark room to beat the game on Legendary.

So that practically leaves my total audience to this article at about 8.

So, it’s with great pleasure that I give you guys my first impressions of Halo 3, and present you with Finish the Fight; Australia’s premier Halo 3 website for all your community needs.

My main focus for this article is the multiplayer side of the game. Strictly speaking, this really is where Halo 3 will live and die. Halo 2 was once said to have saved X-Box Live; Essentially giving MS the one game that would have literally millions of people sign up for their online service. Since then, many games have attempted to reproduce the success of Bungie’s blockbuster, but even with the collective might of Rainbow Six: Vegas, Gears of War, two Call of Duties and a multitude of other games, Halo 2 stood the test of time and is still one of the most played games on XBL.

Halo 3 will, note I say will and not may, blow this out of the water. I don’t think any game on any console will match the sheer volume of people that will purchase the game, or even go so far as to purchase a console to play the game, in order to BR, snipe, stick, splatter, beat down and rocket their friends.

From the Halo 3 BETA, my immediate reaction to this game was ‘Wow, this is actually a lot of fun.’

As I sat down with Pidge from Microsoft Studio’s, Jooney (Fellow SPE6TRE employee and my good mate), CaBeL and Viper from the clan Australia, and Hep and Roach from MyGEN, I began to get an idea of just how much more than just fun this game was.

First off, let me just say that one of the pet criticisms of Halo 2 from those who had been around the competitive scene since Halo: Combat Evolved is the individual skill capping seen in Halo 2 due to the increased auto aim and magnetism. To put it bluntly, the game had been n00bed up a bit.

Sweep sniping that allowed players to be less precise with their reticule but be rewarded with a headshot; Auto aim that decreased the aiming requirements when wielding the Battle Rifle; A Plasma Pistol that fired shots capable of swinging in ways that would make a cricketer envious; Plasma weaponry that no longer stunned opponents; The Rocket Launcher tracking possessing almost heat seeking capabilities; And probably mine, and the large majority of others, personal hatred towards the popcorn shooting, shield painting, ridiculously short ranged SMG.

Jooney and I have never forgiven Bungie for Assault on Burial Mounds.

“Hey guys! Let’s create a map, called Burial Mounds, and have the attacking team all spawn in a small gully, only metres apart, and give them a really, really short ranged weapon called the SMG to be Map Default, and then make them carry a bomb aaaaaaaaalll the way across the map, to a heavily fortified based that has two turrets, lots of Battle Rifles, and then make it the number 1 preference in Map Making play lists!”

I’m sure that man was also responsible for crimes against gamers that varied from 1 Flag CTF Fast on Burial Mounds SMG start, Team Slayer on Burial Mounds SMG start, and anything that relates to Coagulation.

But I digress, even if humorously.

Halo 3, I would like to think, is Bungie apologising for their mistakes in Halo 2, listening to the community, and learning. I’m happy to accept this apology, simply because when you play the game you can’t deny that they really, really have tried to make amends.

The Battle Rifle, staple to the MLG gamer, now requires quite a higher degree of skill to use. I honestly and truthfully believe that this interpretation of the weapon is what they envisaged it being for Halo 2. Precise placement of the reticule, and a requirement to accurately track the player to achieve four bursts to the head and kill is an art that will need practice for hours to master.

The sniper, considered by many to be the ultimate show of skill, seems to me to have been made almost as difficult as it’s H:CE predecessor, and with a very similar rate of fire. I noticed a smidgen of leading at far range might have been required, but as many will know I rarely hit anything with a sniper so I wouldn’t quote me on that.

The Carbine, previously an overlooked weapon for Halo 2 in most instances, is now probably the equal of a BR, and in some cases possibly superior. The rate of fire has been cut back a little, but it’s a potent weapon and in the hands of a skilled user, will undoubtedly prove to be a weapon of considerable favour to competitive players.

The Rocket Launcher has lost the vehicle tracking abilities it possessed in Halo 2. Again, in a similar fashion to the sniper, it draws more comparisons to the H:CE counterpart than the H2 version. Rate of fire is slower, power is slightly increased. The only problem I encountered was the lack of splash damage it caused. I believe it should be larger, but we’ll see how she goes.

The money question to a lot of traditionalists is ‘How does the pistol play?’ Disappointingly, it doesn’t play very well at all. For those familiar with H:CE and the differences in the pistol rate of fire between PAL and NTSC versions, you’ll then understand when I state that the pistol seems to take after the PAL version. Frankly, I’m not quite sure why it is in the game at all. It doesn’t seem to be useful in many circumstances at all. I’m hoping further play will help to change that initial assessment.

The Assault Rifles triumphant return to the game is a successful one. My personal belief is the gun will be the general close combat weapon of choice. Able to combat a number of weapons at short range, the usefulness of the AR for close combat fire fights will make it a much better default choice than the SMG.

This pretty much covers the major weapons the competitive player will be interested in. Some of the Brute weaponry is interesting, but not too exciting. The Plasma weaponry still lacks the ability to freeze and opponent, but the swing of the PP is now minimal and requires you to actually aim with it rather than just fire in a general direction.

I think from a competitive perspective, Jooney and myself mused that a BR start with AR secondary could be the way of the future. The mid and short range flexibility this gives the player allows them to almost immediately enter the fray without any constraints or disability.

The maps themselves are varied, but essentially Bungie have decided to keep the majority of them as fairly symmetrical. I’ll go through the maps with my critical glasses on in order to make you aware of what I believe will become the staple competitive maps for so inclined gamers.

Construct – Probably one of the more intricately designed maps, Construct was, in my opinion, one of the more interesting level designs . With multiple layers, multiple angles of attack, and various weapon placements makes it an excellent map for Team Slayer, and most probably Oddball as well. It’s reasonably symmetrical in design, but holds slightly different characteristics on either side of the map itself. The water fall back ground is just... breathtaking. Bungie prove that a good map can also be a pretty map.

Isolation – An interesting map to say least. What appears to be like a small gladiatorial stadium proves to hold a flood-like under-belly. The map itself is dead symmetrical, and looks like it would work fantastically well for CTF. The underground cavern also allows for players to escape spawn camping. As such, this map looks to be a well designed map capable of addressing the CTF and Team Slayer needs of competitive gamers. It also looks to be one of the more logical FFA maps.

The Pit – An interesting map, it is symmetrical also, although it does not reveal this aspect of its design until fully explored. The closest map I could draw comparison to with it is Colossus, although even that is a very rough and vague comparison. This particular map looks like it would be superb for FFA, as the mountains of boxes and obstacles mean there is no one area on the map that you could spawn and be at too great a disadvantage. Team Slayer and CTF also look like they could be capable game types, but I do think this needs to be explored more before a decision made. The fantastic setting of a Spartan training centre, with a background to the Pelican landing zone is stunning.

Epitah – Sadly, this great map was not one I had the leisure of exploring enough to see its full potential. Suffice to say that its multi tiered levelling, and ramps on the outside draw more similarities to Cloud City from Star Wars than anything I can see in Halo. This is not a negative, mind you; The incredible views you see when outside are more than a worthy excuse to be distracted as you hunt your foe. For the time being, I’d suggest Oddball and Team Slayer to be the two main game types for this map, but I could also see some tweaking to the flag capture points allowing CTF to be used.

Guardian – The sister map to Lockout, this is the famed redesign by Bungie of a crowd favourite that has been the staple of competitive gaming. I was hesitant to look at this map, simply because I was so big a fan of Lockout, but it looks like Bungie have done a good job at taking the main elements of the previous map, and then giving it a new spin. Whilst I still think there needs to be a bit more investigation done, this does look like a promising Team Slayer and Oddball map. The surroundings look a little bit like Backwash in terms of the murky green colouring and one part of Guardian being a tree. Oh, and we’ve also discovered the ‘Jooney Jump’. Watch out, people.

Sandpit – The biggest map of Halo 3 is this sand ridden map. Reminding me a lot of Abydoss from Stargate, this map is definitely not competitive. It is, however, a whole lot of fun. The ability to have the largest of vehicles present on the map – Most notable being the gigantic Elephant – I can see this being a truly awesome LAN map with as many vehicles on there as possible. Jooney and myself envisage some incredible matches involving the use of the Elephant and VIP.

Last Resort – The only true remake of a map, Last Resort faithfully replicates Zanzibar whilst adding some small additions. Also a tad too big to be competitive for 4v4, it will be an excellent 6v6 and 8v8 map. The highlight for me on this map was the beach, and the scenery you see from it. Just gorgeous.

I won’t go through Valhalla, Snowbound or High Ground simply because I think every man and his dog has played them at least 50 times during the BETA testing. I will, however, say that the possibilities for High Ground being competitive are higher due to the abilities given to you by Forge.

Which brings me to my next topic of interest.

When Bungie announced Forge, I was a touch hesitant on the whole concept, and very unsure as to what they thought it would achieve. Truth be told, I thought it a waste of time.

How wrong I was.

Forge is possibly one of the greatest tools Bungie could give to the competitive gamer. The ability to tweak re-spawn areas, amend the weapons on a map as well as their placement, the re-spawns of the map, and many other fascinating combinations of the above make forge a benchmark to future competitive FPS titles for the X-Box 360. What Far Cry achieved with their editor, this builds on in a different aspect.

Don’t like where the sniper spawns? Change it. Don’t think that spawn area is fair? Change where the player spawns. Don’t like that weapon on this map? Change it. Think an OS would be better than Active Camo? Change it. There’s a world of opportunity awaiting the competitive gamer with Forge, and I think we can collectively wait with baited breath for what MLG will bring out. From a tournament perspective here at Finish The Fight, it will give us opportunities we never thought possible for H:CE or H2.

Add to this the ability to save games, view them from multiple angles, and play them in a Matrix fashion, and I think we’re going to see a whole new wave of Machinema and montages that will blow the minds of viewers.

Small additions such as new and interesting armour variances that give no advantage in the multiplayer game except that you’ll look cooler than the 12 year old American kid you just killed just add show the attention to detail Bungie have gone to in order to please both the competitive and casual player.

I suppose my final word to those reading this blubbering mess of thought is that Halo 3 looks to be the ultimate competitive FPS to hit the 360. Perhaps I’m too glowing about my assessment of the game; Indeed, I do remember Halo 2 being ‘... better than Halo: Combat Evolved...’ when I was a new kid on the block. Oh how I envy those innocent days, where dual wielding on Coagulation was an acceptable practice.

Never the less, Halo 3 bodes well. Bungie seem to have built a game that is feasibly better than Halo 2. It indeed plays brilliantly from first impressions, and I see the force is strong with this game.

Play it. Learn it. Love it or hate it, Halo 3 is here. And I hope that it meets the expectations of you folk out there. It certainly has exceeded mine.